Can ghosts help revive Old St. Charles?
A group of Hollenbeck Middle School students want to turn rumors about ghosts in the Old St. Charles historic district into more business for South Main stores and restaurants. Last fall, students in teacher Dee Opatz’s accelerated Spectra classes were looking for a community development project. They found that South Main merchants wanted a promotion plan to increase customer traffic. The merchants were particularly interested in getting more young people to the historic district. Current traffic involves mostly older residents and tourists. But, the Hollenbeck kids had to make quite a leap from stories of ghosts to a promotion plan to stimulate present-day business sales.
